Systems and methods to provide interfaces for control of welding-type systems

Abstract

Disclosed example welding-type power supplies include: power conversion circuitry configured to convert input power to welding-type output power; a user interface comprising one or more input devices; and control circuitry configured to: receive an input via the user interface, the input representing a value of a qualitative characteristic of a welding arc; based on the value of the qualitative characteristic, determine a plurality of welding parameters; display a representation of the welding arc via the user interface, the representation based on the value of the qualitative characteristic; and control the power conversion circuitry based on the plurality of welding parameters.

1 . A welding-type power supply, comprising:
 power conversion circuitry configured to convert input power to welding-type output power;   a user interface comprising one or more input devices; and   control circuitry configured to:
 receive an input via the user interface, the input representing a value of a qualitative characteristic of a welding arc; 
 based on the value of the qualitative characteristic, determine a plurality of welding parameters; 
 display a representation of the welding arc via the user interface, the representation based on the value of the qualitative characteristic; and 
 control the power conversion circuitry based on the plurality of welding parameters. 
   
     
     
         2 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the qualitative characteristic is at least one of a heat input of the welding arc, a width of the welding arc, a leg length of a resulting bead, a penetration profile, or a resulting bead shape. 
     
     
         3 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 2 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive inputs representing values for both the heat input and the width via the user interface, and determine the plurality of welding parameters based on the received inputs representing the values of the heat input and the width. 
     
     
         4 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the plurality of welding parameters comprise two or more of: voltage, current, wire feed speed, inductance, slope, AC balance, AC frequency, pulse frequency, pulse background voltage, pulse background current, pulse peak voltage, or pulse peak current. 
     
     
         5 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive inputs representative of physical characteristics of a welding operation, and determine the plurality of welding parameters based on the inputs representative of the physical characteristics. 
     
     
         6 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 5 , wherein the physical characteristics comprise one or more of a weld process type, a wire type, a shielding gas type, a wire size, a workpiece thickness, a weld joint type, or a weld joint position. 
     
     
         7 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the representation of the welding arc is a graphic illustrating one or more of: an arc length, a bead concavity, a bead width, a throat thickness, a leg height, a penetration depth, or an electrode extension. 
     
     
         8 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to update the representation of the welding arc in real time in response to changes in the value of the qualitative characteristic. 
     
     
         9 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 8 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to determine the welding parameters in response to a confirmation of the value of the qualitative characteristic via the user interface. 
     
     
         10 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 8 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to display the determined welding parameters via the user interface with the representation of the welding arc, and update the welding parameters in real time in response to the changes in the value of the qualitative characteristic via the user interface. 
     
     
         11 . A welding-type user interface, comprising:
 one or more input devices;   one or more output devices; and   control circuitry configured to:
 receive an input via the one or more input devices, the input representing a value of a qualitative characteristic of a welding arc; 
 based on the value of the qualitative characteristic, determine a plurality of welding parameters; 
 display a representation of the welding arc via the one or more output devices, the representation based on the value of the qualitative characteristic; and 
 communicate the plurality of welding parameters to a welding-type power supply. 
   
     
     
         12 . A welding-type power supply, comprising:
 power conversion circuitry configured to convert input power to welding-type output power;   a user interface comprising one or more input devices; and   control circuitry configured to:
 in response to receiving a first input modifying a first characteristic via the user interface, synergically modify a first subset of a plurality of welding-type parameters; 
 in response to receiving a second input modifying a second characteristic via the user interface, synergically modify a second subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters; 
 display a representation of a welding arc via the user interface, the representation based on the values of the first characteristic and the second characteristic or based on values of the plurality of welding-type parameters; and 
 control the power conversion circuitry based on the plurality of welding parameters. 
   
     
     
         13 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the first characteristic comprises a first one of a heat input of the welding arc, a width of the welding arc, a leg length of a resulting bead, a penetration profile, or a resulting bead shape. 
     
     
         14 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 13 , wherein the second characteristic comprises a second one of the heat input of the welding arc, the width of the welding arc, the leg length of a resulting bead, the penetration profile, or the resulting bead shape. 
     
     
         15 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the first subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters comprises two or more of: voltage, current, wire feed speed, inductance, slope, AC balance, AC frequency, pulse frequency, pulse background voltage, pulse background current, pulse peak voltage, or pulse peak current. 
     
     
         16 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 15 , wherein the second subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters comprises two or more of: voltage, current, wire feed speed, inductance, slope, AC balance, AC frequency, pulse frequency, pulse background voltage, pulse background current, pulse peak voltage, or pulse peak current, wherein the second subset has at least one welding-type parameter that is different than the first subset. 
     
     
         17 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 16 , wherein the first subset and the second subset have at least one overlapping welding-type parameter. 
     
     
         18 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to receive inputs representative of physical characteristics of a welding operation, and modify the first subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters based on the inputs representative of the physical characteristics. 
     
     
         19 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 18 , wherein the physical characteristics comprise one or more of a weld process type, a wire type, a shielding gas type, a wire size, a workpiece thickness, a weld joint type, or a weld joint position. 
     
     
         20 . (canceled) 
     
     
         21 . The welding-type power supply as defined in  claim 12 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to synergically modify the first subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters by modifying the first subset of the plurality of welding-type parameters based on a predetermined relationship between the welding-type parameters in the first subset and based on a value of the first characteristic.